A Crescent Moon...

Recently, while a group of young people were downstairs playing games and such on a Saturday evening, I had retired to my upstairs chamber for the evening. After lighting a fragrance candle, I did some evening reading ( Bible, then a chapter of current book), then turned out the lamp to retire. It was then that I noticed out the window how early the moon was setting and that it was a crescent positioned like a boat. With the flickering of the candle, memories of a few evenings of my youth flooded back.
In 1973, a group of young men visited Philmont Scout ranch in NE New Mexico. The first part of the trip was spent backpacking on the ranch itself, during which we hiked and camped for 6 days covering about 85 miles. After a day and a half in base camp, we bussed to the Kit Carson Natl. Forest, and backpacked for a couple of hours up the trail and made an evening camp. The next morning, we continued up the trail, eventually crossing the tree line and continuing higher in elevation. We crossed two snow banks, which was odd in shorts. About lunch, we came to a small lake, shaped like a horseshoe (guess the name?) at about 11,000 ft elevation. This camp became home for 3 days, at the base of the highest point in New Mexico, Mt. Wheeler, elev. 13,000 +.
Evenings in this camp were spent beside flickering camp fires and instead of setting moon, we could enjoy the rising moon over the lower eastern peaks in this part of the Sangre De Cristo range of the southern Rockies. Days were spent trout fishing in the lake and hiking to the peak of Mt. Wheeler. Day time temperatures were an enjoyable high 60's / lo 70's, but evenings, with the wind chill, seemed to be near freezing. Even with our tent backed up to some low bushes for a wind break, it was hard to get enough clothes on to be comfortable in a light sleeping bag. The clear mountain air was thin, but we didn't seem to hardly notice.
Soon enough, we returned down the mountain and back to the ranch. The first evening back, we went to supper at a motel restaurant with a buffet in Raton. After 11 days of freeze dried backpack food, the fried chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. disappeared. We rested hard and then headed back to Alabama the next day.